What can love of land give to me

that you have not—

what do the tall Spartans know,

and gentler Attic folk?

What has Sparta and her women

more than this?

What are the islands to me

if you are lost—

what is Naxos, Tinos, Andros,

and Delos, the clasp

of the white necklace?

[28]

III

What can love of land give to me

that you have not,

what can love of strife break in me

that you have not?

Though Sparta enter Athens,

Thebes wrack Sparta,

each changes as water,

 Prev. P 39/71 next